timoreilly's dashboard

We've proposed that to Amazon, and will continue to suggest it, but they are the folks you need to be asking about this. They seem pretty intent on providing content that they control, and I think they see Safari as a competitor. But we'd jump on this. That being said, all of the same issues discussed previously, about the Kindle's lack of monospace font support, apply to Safari on the kindle. – timoreilly, about 12 hours ago

I see a lot of replies of getting O'Reilly books on the Kindle, but what about Safari? I wouldn't mind paying an extra 5 dollars or so a month just to access a Safari account from the Kindle.

Got it, Thanks for the info. I checked their site and it does say that Kindle supports MOBI files. This will keep my hopes up!!
Few more question: Do you know by what time frame this is going to happen? Are you going to publish only new books or old and the existing ones in the MOBI format?

Viren: Font support isn't a publisher problem, it's a device (Kindle problem).

I would be surprised if converting the PDFs with the Amazon converter yields acceptable results (mainly because of the font problems). We hope to provide .mobi files for many of our titles, which should sidestep the need for customers to convert PDF files themselves.

I understand the problem and don't know how your systems are designed, but inability to change fonts on a piece of content...that's what gets me...but you guys are publishers I have to take your word for it.

One more thing about the PDFs you were talking about..will I be able to convert these to Kindle format through Amazon's conversion program? Or, do I have to go the conventional route of opening them on a computer cauz if I have to open it on a computer then the entire argument of having a portable device such as Kindle is lost. I may as well open the pdf on my computer.

I see two problems with this situation:
1) I will have to buy the book on Kindle and then buy pdfs from Oreilly, how do you address that?
2) Now instead of one device I will have to manage 2 devices Kindle and Computer if these pdfs are not convertable through Amazon's program.

Hmm, what may work for the lacking fonts are images of rasterized fonts. It'll show up right and you can tweak out the renderer exactly for how you want the code shown. Error on the big font side and you should be good. – Lally, 7 days ago

Hi Viren,

Viren wrote:
> So, its an important aspect of your books. In my sincere opinion, could you
> guys just change the fonts if its not that big of a deal?

(reiterating what Tim wrote)
At this point, it's not the lack of a single font that bothers us, it's the lack of a whole class of (important) fonts. We certainly would use any monospace (fixed-width) font, but the Kindle doesn't provide a single one. We're currently evaluating other options to see if a different approach to code fonts and whitespace makes more sense.

> The books will not meet the practical purpose if code is unreadable.

We hope to counter some of this anxiety by making PDF versions (with good typography) available alongside any ebooks. That way, when the reader is in doubt about the meaning of a particular section they'll have another, more legible, version available.

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the update. Just for my information, did you guys receive any updated information on this issue from Amazon? I did email their customer support about this issue. Do you know any particular contact person on Amazon side so that I can send an email them? May be, if they hear from customers, they will address this issue little faster....

--Virendra

Viren -- it isn't something WE can change. Amazon has no support for monospaced fonts on the Kindle. We've told them about this problem, and we believe they will eventually address it. But it's not something that's under our control. – timoreilly, 8 days ago

Hi Allen,
Thanks for the reply. I am happy to hear that Oreilly is moving in the right direction with Kindle. To answer your question, The code examples are the most important in understanding the technology behind it; most of the times you can directly re-use the same code. So, its an important aspect of your books. In my sincere opinion, could you guys just change the fonts if its not that big of a deal? The books will not meet the practical purpose if code is unreadable.

One more aspect I want to mention here, Kindle can operate like a single and portable manual for all the tech-books; meaning usually most of the software development community refers to various books during our day to day job and those books are scattered over different formats some are hard bound books and some are pdfs etc and Oreilly books are one of the most popular brands in tech books publications. This is because you guys do publish lot of tech books and cover broad base. So, imagine this if your books are published on Kindle I will have a single source to refer all those books on a 10 ounce device and as a bonus these books are searchable; so, I can find relevant information quickly and this is a very important feature. Instead of searching on the internet for information I can search on a more credible source (i.e books) which usually tend to have more complete information regarding a topic of interest. You guys will be doing a huge favor to Software Development community by providing support to Kindle or Kindle like devices.

Please let me know if you have anymore questions.

Thanks,
Virendra

Hello Virendra,

We're definitely moving in this direction. Our goal is have some books available on the Kindle soon, as well as to provide books in the .epub format direct from oreilly.com. Regarding the Kindle, it sounds like you'd want some of our code heavy books. One thing we've discovered is that the Kindle does not yet render monspace fonts such as courier is a way that makes the code anywhere near as readable as in the book. My question is how big an issue will this be for someone like you?

Regards, --Allen

Hi Allen,
I just bought my Kindle and hope to get the Oreilly to publish books soon. I travel a lot and being a Software Engineer I do refer to lot of books and would love if Oreilly could publish Java/J2EE and Java related open source books ( such as books on Spring, Hibernate, Web Services, Jboss to name a few) on kindle, I think these titles are very much needed in day to day development activities and being able to consolidate these books on a device specially designed for reading books would be awesome.

Regards,
Virendra

Tony,

It might help if you told us why you needed this information. I can tell you "very well," and suggest you check public sources like Amazon's computer bestseller list to confirm. To give more specific details than that, I'd have to know more about you and how the information might be used.

@Keith: Thanks for the update! It's comforting to know that there is a technical reason why I can't carry around all of my tech books in my pack with me rather than a political one regarding openness of format.

I'd prefer be able to make the proprietary/open choice, but I'd rather have proprietary and closed than nothing at all :)

I'll go make my voice heard with the kindle team!

@Keith: Thanks for that explanation. It makes a lot of sense. I'm emailing kindle-feedback to add my vote for a monospace font.

@rodbegbie: One of the remaining problems preventing a full adoption of the Kindle from technical publishers like O'Reilly is the lack of any fixed-width ("monospace", Courier) font on the Kindle. We've figured out ways around most of the other constraints, but we're reluctant to sell our content without the ability to present programming code properly (no carriage returns, spacing, vertical alignment).

Has there been any headway made on this front yet? I've only been using my Kindle for a week, and the thought of having to cart around heavy unsearchable technical books already seems like a relic of a bygone era!

There are a bunch of ORA books that I already have in dead-tree that I'd be happy to pay-for again for my Kindle. (I'm deadly serious about this -- Of the four books I've purchased so far on my Kindle, I'd already owned-but-not-read three in deadtree!)

Ron: I've removed your phone number, per your request. – Eric Suesz, 29 days ago

I'll tell you all again, guys, and give you a place to start your education.
First, Tim, would you remove my phone number? I thought the first message was going to you privately.
Thank You.
Second, For all lookers, Google (use quotes) "RFID Hacking" and take a look.
After that, go to ArmadilloDollar.com and see the some mainstream news videos. If that doesn't begin to get your attention, then I don't know what will.
Further, you'll find some interesting equipment at RFIDIOt.org. Software AND hardware at the same site to serve all your "development project" needs!